Experimental and numerical analysis on an ancient anti-seismic technique

This work presents an investigation of an ancient aseismic technique developed in Southern Italy. The peculiarity of this technique is the use of a kind of hollow brick called "fictile tubule brick", which is commonly featured in the historical and cultural heritage of several Mediterranean regions. It has been used by Romans since the 2nd century AD to build vaults and domes. After the enormously disastrous earthquake of Messina and Reggio Calabria in late 1908, a Calabrian engineer named Pasquale Frezza patented an anti-seismic construction system which evolved the traditional technology of casa baraccata. The main purpose of this work is to investigate this construction technology through experimental and numerical tests. First, an experimental campaign is carried out on beams consisting of mortar and fictile tubules to better understand the rate of adherence that exists between these two constituents. Second, diagonal compressive tests are carried out on scale models of walls made with Frezza's building technique. Eventually, numerical analyses are conducted to validate the results of the experimental tests.